It would be nice if the Windows application management interface was a _little_ bit more like a package manager, though. It would be great if you could scan through the list of installed programs and see which ones are dependencies for other installed programs and which are not. Then, you could go through removing leaf nodes from the dependency tree until you run out of things that aren't needed, with confidence that you aren't going to be breaking stuff that you actually use.
My pet hate are all the minor dot releases of VC++ frameworks installed by various games. I'm sure I don't *really* need them all, but damned if I can figure out which are expendable.
If someone in Nigeria defrauds a person in Florida via email, where has the crime taken place?
Under whose jurisdiction has the offence occurred?
I agree with you that the answer isn't "in cyberspace", but the fact is that the characteristics of "cybercrime" do actually differ in a significant way from traditional in-person crime.
Or you can use Dropbox to synchronise the password file (which is volatile) and _also_ manually distribute a fixed, multi-hundred-bit key which is combined with the password to form the decryption credential.
That way, someone who breaks into your Dropbox account can get the password vault file, but can't decrypt it unless they also have file system access to (at least) one of your devices.
For a certain value of "old". Games that are 3-6 months old are actually regularly discounted deeply on Steam. Lots of people are perfectly ok with waiting that long for a game.
Yes. I don't like the article "snippeting" on the main page either. It's the main reason why I didn't explore the beta very much; reading the articles so I know which ones I want to load the comments on is a core function.
If all I wanted was RSS snippets, I'd read Google News instead.
That makes no sense. If you've got a *contract* that requires you to pay the company or at least pay an Early Termination Fee to get out of the contract, why the heck would the company need to tie you down _more_ with a technical lock on the phone SIM?
In Australia, I believe only pre-paid phones usually come with network locks. If you've got a contract with a phone company *anyway*, there's no need for them to lock your phone.
Considering that the aliens in Prometheus were thought to have visited Earth on an ongoing basis stretching back to early hominid times, I still think it is unbelievably reckless of the exploration team to assume that there was no risk of biological contamination from Promethean organisms.
My Motorola Atrix running Android 2.3 had a lot of text labels throughout its UI. I found it much more discoverable than iOS applications on my iPad, due to the greater use of text and the fixed location of the menu, search and back buttons.
I've got a Galaxy Note 2 now. It's a superb phone, much better than the Atrix overall, but I see what you mean about text labels getting replaced with cryptic icons. I'm inclined to agree that it makes the interface a lot less discoverable.
I can reproduce it with both Chrome and Firefox (give focus to another window, Firefox and Chrome still process hover events even when they're not the active window).
For the processing to happen, Chrome/Firefox do have to be the top window in z-order when the hovering happens, though (although they don't have to be active). They don't trigger hover events "through" an Aero glass border of another window.
Yes, I have some Android apps with scroll "bars". (Actually, the right hand side of the screen is the scroll bar; the only thing that gets drawn in the position indicator nubbin).
On the other hand, the position indicator can actually be grabbed and dragged, which is good for scrolling through very long lists where the whole list is dozens or hundreds of screen-heights long.
An online email account often comprises the keys to the online kingdom. From looking at the email history you can often learn what usernames and accounts a person has on other services, and then reset all the login credentials for those other services. I'm pretty sure I remember reading about that exact sequence happening to someone high profile quite recently.
I use Dropbox to synch my KeePass database. But I use a (strong) password, _and_ a manually distributed 440+ bit key as a combined credential for the KeePass database. I put the key on my devices without it ever touching the cloud. Dropbox keeps my passwords synchronized between all the devices, but it would be extremely difficult to brute force a 440 bit key _plus_ the strong password.
So, basically, I'm not really worried about anyone getting at the contents of the vault unless they've already owned one of my devices and uploaded their own copy of the manually-distributed key file. Cracking Dropbox alone isn't going to get them into the vault.
The iOS interface [has] got to be the easiest interface to use ever developed.
Actually, I find that Android apps are typically much easier to learn than iOS apps, because the Android OS menus that you invoke from the menu button usually have text labels as well as mysterious monochrome icons. iOS apps typically only have icons, with no text labels and no tooltips (since it's a touch interface with no hover).
Learning a new iOS app is always an exciting adventure in "let's find out what this incomprehensible hieroglyphic is for".
Let's see. Five year old MS Office... this is 2012, so that would be Office 2007 (+/- one year), yeah?
Which uses the same file formats as Office 2010. I haven't heard of any major file format changes for the upcoming Office 2013, (maybe I've missed a story? I don't really pay close attention). And there is a set of free plugins you can download for editing the docx, xlsx etc file types in Office 2003, which is even older.
Of course, the feature compatibility isn't ever 100% complete between Office versions (otherwise, what would be the point of a new version anyway...), but I generally find that as long as you aren't relying on any new features in a document, it'll be largely fine in older versions of MS Office. But perfect backwards compatibility isn't required is it? You've already established that your personal baseline for adequate performance is
Perhaps not perfectly, but fine.
and that
99% of users demand little or nothing more than MS was offering in the 90s
Implying that someone using Office 2003 or 2007 (five years old!) is completely unable to use files generated in the latest version(s) of Office is pretty disingenuous. At least you weren't modded (dis)Informative.
It remains to be seen if electric assist has any effect in this thing. TFA says that two vehicles were tested, one with electric motor and another without, and they were performing identically.
Well, to be fair, the article says that the electric assist allowed a relatively unfit journalist to keep up with someone who is a velomobile enthusiast in an unpowered model (who presumably rides these things around a lot and is therefore pretty fit). I wouldn't say that was a negligible result.
Slashdot Mirror
It would be nice if the Windows application management interface was a _little_ bit more like a package manager, though. It would be great if you could scan through the list of installed programs and see which ones are dependencies for other installed programs and which are not. Then, you could go through removing leaf nodes from the dependency tree until you run out of things that aren't needed, with confidence that you aren't going to be breaking stuff that you actually use.
My pet hate are all the minor dot releases of VC++ frameworks installed by various games. I'm sure I don't *really* need them all, but damned if I can figure out which are expendable.
What I really find neat is how tablet apps can become phone apps when docked on the side, for multitasking.
Hmm, that _is_ a cunning piece of design. A bit like Metro's app docking but actually useful and less sucky.
If someone in Nigeria defrauds a person in Florida via email, where has the crime taken place?
Under whose jurisdiction has the offence occurred?
I agree with you that the answer isn't "in cyberspace", but the fact is that the characteristics of "cybercrime" do actually differ in a significant way from traditional in-person crime.
Impressive. Where did you order your kitchen things?
Or you can use Dropbox to synchronise the password file (which is volatile) and _also_ manually distribute a fixed, multi-hundred-bit key which is combined with the password to form the decryption credential.
That way, someone who breaks into your Dropbox account can get the password vault file, but can't decrypt it unless they also have file system access to (at least) one of your devices.
For a certain value of "old". Games that are 3-6 months old are actually regularly discounted deeply on Steam. Lots of people are perfectly ok with waiting that long for a game.
Yes. I don't like the article "snippeting" on the main page either. It's the main reason why I didn't explore the beta very much; reading the articles so I know which ones I want to load the comments on is a core function.
If all I wanted was RSS snippets, I'd read Google News instead.
That makes no sense. If you've got a *contract* that requires you to pay the company or at least pay an Early Termination Fee to get out of the contract, why the heck would the company need to tie you down _more_ with a technical lock on the phone SIM?
In Australia, I believe only pre-paid phones usually come with network locks. If you've got a contract with a phone company *anyway*, there's no need for them to lock your phone.
xxx.gov? I didn't know the United States feds had a porn agency.
Considering that the aliens in Prometheus were thought to have visited Earth on an ongoing basis stretching back to early hominid times, I still think it is unbelievably reckless of the exploration team to assume that there was no risk of biological contamination from Promethean organisms.
Judging by the state of American manned spaceflight in recent history, it seems like there could even be a negative correlation!
Better find a class of people to oppress so we can get a Mars colony going....
My Motorola Atrix running Android 2.3 had a lot of text labels throughout its UI. I found it much more discoverable than iOS applications on my iPad, due to the greater use of text and the fixed location of the menu, search and back buttons.
I've got a Galaxy Note 2 now. It's a superb phone, much better than the Atrix overall, but I see what you mean about text labels getting replaced with cryptic icons. I'm inclined to agree that it makes the interface a lot less discoverable.
I can reproduce it with both Chrome and Firefox (give focus to another window, Firefox and Chrome still process hover events even when they're not the active window).
For the processing to happen, Chrome/Firefox do have to be the top window in z-order when the hovering happens, though (although they don't have to be active). They don't trigger hover events "through" an Aero glass border of another window.
Yes, I have some Android apps with scroll "bars". (Actually, the right hand side of the screen is the scroll bar; the only thing that gets drawn in the position indicator nubbin).
On the other hand, the position indicator can actually be grabbed and dragged, which is good for scrolling through very long lists where the whole list is dozens or hundreds of screen-heights long.
This person deserves +5 Insightful.
An online email account often comprises the keys to the online kingdom. From looking at the email history you can often learn what usernames and accounts a person has on other services, and then reset all the login credentials for those other services. I'm pretty sure I remember reading about that exact sequence happening to someone high profile quite recently.
I use Dropbox to synch my KeePass database. But I use a (strong) password, _and_ a manually distributed 440+ bit key as a combined credential for the KeePass database. I put the key on my devices without it ever touching the cloud. Dropbox keeps my passwords synchronized between all the devices, but it would be extremely difficult to brute force a 440 bit key _plus_ the strong password.
So, basically, I'm not really worried about anyone getting at the contents of the vault unless they've already owned one of my devices and uploaded their own copy of the manually-distributed key file. Cracking Dropbox alone isn't going to get them into the vault.
I could tell, when you asked for documentation rather than saying [citation needed] :)
Now, that's deserving of +Informative.
Maybe the message is that the EFF probably wouldn't want money raised from the sale of drm encumbered games?
I wouldn't be surprised if the Humble Bundle people had specifically checked that with the EFF before proceeding.
The iOS interface [has] got to be the easiest interface to use ever developed.
Actually, I find that Android apps are typically much easier to learn than iOS apps, because the Android OS menus that you invoke from the menu button usually have text labels as well as mysterious monochrome icons. iOS apps typically only have icons, with no text labels and no tooltips (since it's a touch interface with no hover).
Learning a new iOS app is always an exciting adventure in "let's find out what this incomprehensible hieroglyphic is for".
It's only equivalent if the government pays BP's gross expenses for the 180 days as well.
Prison beds, food and water are provided out of the government's budgets, after all. (Even if it's indirectly through a contractor)
Let's see. Five year old MS Office... this is 2012, so that would be Office 2007 (+/- one year), yeah?
Which uses the same file formats as Office 2010. I haven't heard of any major file format changes for the upcoming Office 2013, (maybe I've missed a story? I don't really pay close attention). And there is a set of free plugins you can download for editing the docx, xlsx etc file types in Office 2003, which is even older.
Of course, the feature compatibility isn't ever 100% complete between Office versions (otherwise, what would be the point of a new version anyway...), but I generally find that as long as you aren't relying on any new features in a document, it'll be largely fine in older versions of MS Office. But perfect backwards compatibility isn't required is it? You've already established that your personal baseline for adequate performance is
and that
Implying that someone using Office 2003 or 2007 (five years old!) is completely unable to use files generated in the latest version(s) of Office is pretty disingenuous. At least you weren't modded (dis)Informative.
Can you point me to any good resources (books, web resources, etc) that describe how to do this kind of thing *right*?
I'd love to improve my multi-threaded programming skills, but I'm not really sure where to get started.
It remains to be seen if electric assist has any effect in this thing. TFA says that two vehicles were tested, one with electric motor and another without, and they were performing identically.
Well, to be fair, the article says that the electric assist allowed a relatively unfit journalist to keep up with someone who is a velomobile enthusiast in an unpowered model (who presumably rides these things around a lot and is therefore pretty fit). I wouldn't say that was a negligible result.
Thanks! I'd mod you Informative if I hadn't already posted. :)